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Johannesburg
26 June 2008
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is pressing ahead with a presidential runoff election Friday, without an opponent and in the face of global calls, including from his neighbors, to postpone the poll. VOA's Delia Robertson reports from our southern Africa bureau in Johannesburg.
Maroleng says that when Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the runoff poll this week, he effectively removed any strength that Mr. Mugabe may have accrued, even through a discredited election. Now he says the right to convene a government of national unity belongs to Mr. Tsvangirai.
But Maroleng does not expect any concessions from Mr. Mugabe. He says the Zimbabwe president is likely to join with state security organizations to further militarize the state and crack down on opposition and civil society elements.
"I think we are really at the tipping point in Zimbabwe, and this could create a future that has a greater variant of autocracy and dictatorship with some kind of civilian face represented in this instance by President Robert Mugabe and his close associates within ZANU-PF," he noted.
Maroleng says this would result in further economic decline, a hardening of the humanitarian situation and an unstable political environment leading to major conflict.
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